gentiles / nations

Click here to view graphically

The Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, and Latin that is often translated as “gentiles” (or “nations”) in English is often translated as a “local equivalent of ‘foreigners,'” such as “the people of other lands” (Guerrero Amuzgo), “people of other towns” (Tzeltal), “people of other languages” (San Miguel El Grande Mixtec), “strange peoples” (Navajo (Dinė)) (this and above, see Bratcher / Nida), “outsiders” (Ekari), “people of foreign lands” (Kannada), “non-Jews” (North Alaskan Inupiatun), “people being-in-darkness” (a figurative expression for people lacking cultural or religious insight) (Toraja-Sa’dan) (source for this and three above Reiling / Swellengrebel), “from different places all people” (Martu Wangka) (source: Carl Gross).

Tzeltal translates it as “people in all different towns,” Chicahuaxtla Triqui as “the people who live all over the world,” Highland Totonac as “all the outsider people,” Sayula Popoluca as “(people) in every land” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Chichimeca-Jonaz as “foreign people who are not Jews,” Sierra de Juárez Zapotec as “people of other nations” (source of this and one above: Viola Waterhouse in Notes on Translation August 1966, p. 86ff.), Highland Totonac as “outsider people” (source: Waterhouse / Parrott in Notes on Translation October 1967, p. 1ff.), Uma as “people who are not the descendants of Israel” (source: Uma Back Translation), “other ethnic groups” (source: Newari Back Translation), and Yakan as “the other tribes” (source: Yakan Back Translation).

In Chichewa, it is translated with mitundu or “races.” (Source: Mawu a Mulungu mu Chichewa Chalero Back Translation)

See also nations.

complete verse (2 Kings 19:12)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of 2 Kings 19:12:

  • Kupsabiny: “When my forefathers destroyed the communities of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph and Eden who/that were in the country of Telassar, did their gods save them?” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “What! My ancestors destroyed the cities of Gozan, Haran and Rezeph, and [they] killed the people of Eden living in Tel-assar. But was any god able to deliver them?” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “My ancestors destroyed the towns of Gozan, Haran, Rezef, and the people of Eden who were in Telasar. Have- their gods -delivered/saved them?” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Did the gods of the nations that were about to be destroyed by the armies of the previous kings of Assyria rescue them? Did those gods rescue the people in the Gozan region and in Haran and Rezeph cities in northern Syria and the people of Eden who had been deported/forced to go to Tel-Assar city? None of the gods of those cities were able to rescue them.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

Translation commentary on 2 Kings 19:12

This verse is presented in the form of another rhetorical question. But even in languages where such questions are used, the length and complexity of this question may make it unsuitable for literal translation. Good News Translation provides a helpful model for restructuring it as a statement.

The gods of the nations: This same expression is used in a very similar rhetorical question in 2 Kgs 18.33 (see the comments there).

My fathers: The Assyrian king is referring to his ancestors and this should be stated in the most natural way possible in translation. Like Good News Translation, most modern English versions say “my ancestors.” But it would also be possible to say “my predecessors” in this context.

The geographical names in this verse refer to towns or cities on the western edge of the Assyrian Empire in northern Syria, and this implicit information that these are cities should be made clear in translation. Gozan is mentioned in 2 Kgs 17.6 and 18.11, and the name of the city of Haran occurs frequently in Genesis (for example, 11.31). But Rezeph occurs nowhere else in the Old Testament except in the parallel passage in Isa 37.12. The location of this town is disputed, but it was almost certainly somewhere in the vicinity of the better-known city of Haran, which was on the upper part of the Euphrates River about 80 kilometers (or 50 miles) to the east of the city of Carchemish. It is usually a good idea to add the classifier term “cities” or “towns.”

The people of Eden is literally “the sons of Eden” or “the children of Eden” (King James Version). This expression refers to the people of Betheden who are mentioned in Amos 1.5. They had been defeated by a previous Assyrian king (Shalmaneser III) and evicted from their home territory to be settled along the Euphrates River near Haran at a place called Telassar. It would therefore be possible to translate the people of Eden who were in Telassar as “the people of Betheden who had been deported to Telassar.” New Jerusalem Bible and La Bible Pléiade have “Tel Basar” in place of Telassar, but this is based on a conjecture rather than manuscript evidence since Tel Basar was the capital of Betheden. This correction of the spelling is not recommended. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives an {A} rating to the text followed by Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament does not even discuss this problem since it is not really a textual problem.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .